MOC's 200,000th Image

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1111, 03 June 2005

On 17 May 2005, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera
(MOC) acquired its 200,000th image since the spacecraft began orbiting
Mars on 12 September 1997. The image (left, MOC2-1111a), showing
details on the floor and in the ejecta blanket of a northern
middle-latitude martian crater, was received on Earth the following
day. Its red wide angle context frame was also acquired at the same
time (right, MOC2-1111b).

This image marks a milestone for the Mars Global Surveyor mission,
which has returned nearly four times the number of images of both
the Viking 1 and Viking 2 orbiters, combined, in the late 1970s.
An additional point of comparison, the two Viking camera systems
returned about 70 Gbytes of data; MOC thus far has returned
365 Gbytes (after decompression).

The MOC is really a system consisting
of three cameras: (1) a narrow angle camera, essentially a telescope,
that obtains extremely high resolution views ranging from about
0.5 to about 14 meters per pixel; (2) a red wide angle camera that
is used to take context images, daily global maps, and other
selected images; and (3) a blue wide angle camera that
also acquires daily global maps, views of the martian limb,
and other selected targets. Both wide angle cameras can obtain
images with resolutions in the range of 0.24 to 7.5 kilometers
per pixel.

The first images acquired by MOC were taken during the third orbit
of MGS on 15 September 1997. MGS conducted a pre-mission series
of observations between mid-September 1997 and February 1999.
Then, MGS conducted its 1 Mars year Primary Mission from March 1999
through January 2001. The Extended Mission phase for MGS began
in February 2001 and continues to this day.

Data from the MGS MOC have contributed greatly over the past
eight years to the on-going revolution in Mars science.
As less than 5% of the martian surface has been covered by MOC's
high resolution (narrow angle) camera system, one never knows
from one day to the next whether a new discovery will be made.
A few of the highlights of MOC's findings include:

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.